This cake is like a pound cake, but taken up to a more sophisticated level with nutty brown butter, seeds scraped from a fragrant vanilla bean, and a splash of dark rum. Dorie uses Armagnac in many of her recipes, sweet and savory, so I had an excuse to break out my bottle to use that in place of the rum. I was correct in my assumption as to why this cake is called a Weekend Cake...if you make it on Friday night or Saturday morning, it is destined to be devoured by Monday morning...a slice with coffee, a slice with afternoon tea, a slice after dinner with some Armagnac or port, a slice toasted the next morning...OMG, I ate the entire cake! Not really, but I could have!

...the concept of a weekend cake is: a simple, sturdy cake that will last the weekend,

that can be put out to be nibbled by family and houseguests,

that will be as good for dessert as it will be for an end-of-the-afternoon snack

or an end-of-the-morning tide-me-over.

I was going to write about a few highlights the past few weeks - like photographing a cooking class with Pamela Sheldon Johns, hanging out in the kitchen at Leroy's for the monthly Chef Collaboration Dinner, and an awesome photography shoot with my Meetup group, Pacific Photographic Society, but I'm just too tired tonight...and it's only Monday!

I will let a few photos tell the story tonight and plan to share some of Pamela's "Peasant Italian" recipes in future posts. You can always visit (and Like!) Newf in My Soup's Facebook Page to see photo albums of special events and photography outings ;-)

Tuesdays with Dorieis an online cooking group where anyone can bake along. We bake with two books – Baking with Julia and Baking Chez Moi. I am baking along with the Baking Chez Moi group, which bakes two recipes per month and posts on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. We are asked to refrain from including the actual recipe in our posts, to promote the publishing industry and encourage others to buy the cookbooks.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

I'm glad I made these Granola Energy Bars and our second recipe for January, Brown Butter and Vanilla Bean Weekend Cake, a few weeks ago, or this post may have fallen by the wayside...

Last week was irritating to say the least, with flooding in my bedroom, a backed up kitchen sink, and Trapper battling yet another health issue. Things settled down by Friday, and I had a great time photographing a Tuscan Peasant cooking class taught by cookbook author Pamela Sheldon Johns on Saturday, and a relaxing, rainy Sunday editing photos and getting some things done around the house.

The original plan for this batch of granola bars was to fly FedEx to TN for the start of baseball season and long days, but that didn't happen with all the chaos. Instead, I was able to snack on a few during the week, and passed out the rest to a few friends and coworkers. I plan on making another batch this week and getting them mailed!

I've made granola bars before, but never with brown rice syrup, which is used as the binding agent in these. The remaining ingredients include old-fashioned oats, nuts and seeds of your choice, dried fruit of your choice, shredded coconut, salt, butter and vanilla extract. I used dried apricots and cherries, almonds, sunflower seeds, and pepitas.

The oats, nuts and seeds are toasted...

and mixed with the dried fruit, coconut and salt. The brown rice syrup and butter are melted, vanilla added, and then the hot mixture is poured into the bowl and mixed until the granola is evenly moistened.

The sticky granola is firmly pressed into a parchment lined pan, baked, pressed down again, allowed to cool, and cut into bars.

The bars keep well for a week, and are great with morning coffee or tea, or anytime throughout the day when you need a snack.

Tuesdays with Dorieis an online cooking group where anyone can bake along. We bake with two books – Baking with Julia and Baking Chez Moi. I am baking along with the Baking Chez Moi group, which bakes two recipes per month and posts on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. We are asked to refrain from including the actual recipe in our posts, to promote the publishing industry and encourage others to buy the cookbooks.